Transmissions from the Northern Outpost

Category: Uncategorized

  • The re-inauguration of this blog

    Last year, on this day, I started this blog. As I said then it was not coincidental when it began, but “it” still is not, and still will not be, the focus of this blog.

    My inspiration for this blog was a quote from Candide by Voltaire, which two friends last year said that I need to read:

    All I know is that we must cultivate our garden.

    Candide says this to one of his traveling companions Pangloss after they encounter a Turk who tells them:

    I have only twenty acres. I cultivate them with my children, and the work keeps us from three great evils, boredom, vice, and poverty.

    One of my friends who recommended the book told me this was going to be his philosophy too, to cultivate his garden, for the next four years. So I thought I’d attempt that too by sharing transmissions or messages I receive from the universe whether it be from books, TV, movies, or my own, and others’, life experiences.

    I’ll admit this first year, I didn’t do that but instead only shared three grateful things every Thursday. However, this year, I’d like to share more than just that and share what is “getting me through,” whether it be books, TV and movies, music, or podcasts. I also might change the theme here, we’ll see. Stay tuned.

    —

  • My 10 favorite TV series and movies watched this year

    Alphabetically, here are my 10 favorite TV series and movies that I watched this year.

    • Arcane: League of Legends
    • Come See Me in the Good Light
    • Corner Gas
    • Death Inc./Fisk
    • Detective Montalbano
    • Ghosts UK, Seasons 4 & 5
    • KPop Demon Hunters
    • The Studio
    • The Venture Brothers
    • Wednesday

    The list is mostly in no particular order, except for the top being my favorite discovery of the year and best show I’ve seen in a long time. I’m not going to give a synopsis of each, or on what streaming platforms they can be found (you have the power of the Interwebs).

    A few notes:

    • I included the TV shows Death Inc. & Fisk as one because of their shared, awkward quirkiness.
    • Kim and I watched Ghosts UK years ago, but we never were able to watch the last two seasons because it wasn’t avaliable on any streaming services we were paying for. We bought the complete series on DVD and finally got to see the final two seasons. It was worth the wait.
    • Three of the four were animated, but none of them were like the others. I also just learned last night that The Venture Brothers has seven seasons. Netflix only has three seasons. We’ll watch the rest on the Adult Swim app with commercials unfortunately.
    • Only one is nonfiction, Come See Me in the Good Light. It’s about the last year of the life of poet Andrea Gibson, who died this past summer.
    • Earlier this year, I finished the last five books in the Inspector Montalbano series by Andrea Camilleri, and so I’ve been making my way slowly through the series based on the books.

    The one my wife Kim and I watched the most together was Corner Gas, a light Canadian comedy that aired from 2004 to 2009. It now is found on various platforms. I’ll leave you with the opening of the first show, which pretty much sets the six seasons of the show perfectly.

    What are some of your favorite TV shows and movies that you watched this year? Share in the comments.

    —

  • A Child’s Christmas in Wales

    Tonight, my wife Kim and I will be watching the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol, with Alistair Sim as Scrooge, and in our minds, the definitive production of the Christmas classic. We watch it every Christmas. However, every Christmas I also watch another production I consider a classic too, the 1987 adaptation of Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales or listen to Thomas himself reading it.

    I shared both with my sister and a friend via text. My friend sent me this version by Richard Burton:

    My friend gave this analysis, which I thought was right on and the reason I like the Elliot version the best:

    Elliot gives a gentler, friendlier performance, and of course that’s partly because it’s a video production. The others are reading. There’s a serious authority to Thomas and a kind of repressed ferocity (as there often is) with Burton.

    As a result of our conversation, for some reason, I was reminded of another production from 1987, The Dead, an adaptation of James Joyce’s short story of the same name in the collection Dubliners. It is one of my favorite movies, especially for the ending monologue (um, trigger warning, not a merry ending):

    I found the entire movie on the Howdy channel on Roku. It also is free on Tubi. I’m watching it now.

    Do you have Christmas TV or movie traditions? Share in the comments.

    —

  • Pause

    Putting the blog on pause until the end of the month. Be back then with a review of my year in books (really nothing), TV and movies (too much), and music (a bit of this and that). Also I’m working on retooling the blog in the new year. See you all after Christmas.

    —

  • To life, to life, l’chaim

    Every Thursday, or Friday or Saturday, I share three good things from today, in the past week, and/or in the week or weeks to come, to focus on what is good. I encourage you to share in the comments your three good things too, if you want. I was introduced to thinking on three good things for the week by Deb Nance of the blog Readerbuzz who lists hers every Sunday on her blog.

    As it is Thanksgiving, I am almost obligated to share three good things, being the theme of the day. Today, however, I’d like to give thanks for one major thing: my wife is not preparing to go to the hospital for a very serious heart issue that could, and almost did, kill her. The condition – the short version, her mitral valve in her left lower heart not working correctly – necessitated her being in the hospital for the month of December last year as doctors and nurses almost literally resurrected her.

    The longer version, for those with questions or don’t remember or know about, I refer you to her CaringBridge website we set up to keep family and friends updated on her stay at the hospital.

    One year later, her mitral valve is working correctly and while she still has primary lymphedema and lipedema (Google, please – it’s too long to explain and you can go down your own rabbit hole), she is alive and kicking.

    She just ended a two-week vacation during which she was able to visit her dad, stepmom, and sister, brother-in-law, and two nieces in Maryland and just returned to work last night. We had early Thanksgiving with those on her shift and significant others, with Kim making the majority of the side dishes.

    —

    ,

  • 29 years, ramen, and gelato

    Every Thursday, or Friday or Saturday, I share three good things from today, in the past week, and/or in the week or weeks to come, to focus on what is good. I encourage you to share in the comments your three good things too, if you want. I was introduced to thinking on three good things for the week by Deb Nance of the blog Readerbuzz who lists hers every Sunday on her blog.

    Tomorrow, Kim and I are celebrating our 29th wedding anniversary. We both are off for the entire weekend; Kim, ending a two week vacation on Tuesday. We had thought about going on Sunday to a Mexican restaurant about an hour away, but decided last night, we probably would just hang out all weekend with TV and movies we’ve been meaning to catch up on. We’re silencing our phones except for calls from immediate family who might want to wish us happy anniversary Sunday.

    Also influencing our decision was we unexpectedly went out to dinner last night. It wasn’t planned, but when I went to get gelato pints at a local eatery, the chef there was doing ramen, only his second time. With the place, having a small kitchen, and us not ordering ahead, we had to wait about an hour but it was good.

    Oh, yes, we still got the gelato pints and will enjoy them today and maybe tomorrow, although not likely. In fact, as I’m writing this early, I think I’ll go have some now for breakfast.

    —

    ,

  • That kinda day

    Yep, that’s the kind of day today was for me. I tossed on two different shoes. I only noticed when I went to tighten the Velcro on the right one this afternoon. If nothing else, it gave our assistant director at the library a laugh – and the employees at the post office too when I went to take books there for interlibrary loan.

    —

  • Waiting For The School Bus

    For National Poetry Month, I’m sharing poems each day, one that I’ve written followed by whatever one from three sites that share a poem a day that strikes my fancy that day.

    Today’s poem is another about my childhood. Initially I wasn’t going to include it, along with another one tomorrow, but here, late in the month, I’ve changed my mind. The poem is best read in desktop and sometimes lansdcape on your browser of choice. 

    Waiting For The School Bus

    Sometimes it was as heavy as
    the bookbags we toted, the trombone cases
    Ed and I lugged up the stairs.

    Other times words filled the spaces between us
    until a passing tractor-trailer cut off our sentences,
    and we fell back into it.

    Twenty or more years later, I shut off the radio
    on my way to work and listen to that sweet absence:
    a burden I gladly bear.

    Today’s poem from another website is “Speakers” by Dimitri Reyes on Poets.org, the Academy of American Poets website.

    —

  • Spring, a concert, and off for 3 days

    Every Thursday, I share three good things from today, in the past week, and/or in the week or weeks to come, to focus on what is good. I encourage you to share in the comments your three good things too, if you want. I was introduced to thinking on three good things for the week by Deb Nance of the blog Readerbuzz who lists hers every Sunday on her blog.

    Today is the first day of Spring. That is No. 1. While winter is still hanging on here, predicted temperatures for the next  weeks: 40s in the day and 20s at night, at least there is hope. I’ll take any hope we can get at this point.

    No. 2 is Kim and I are going to see singer Dar Williams Saturday night in our small town. We’ve known for a few months and Kim has gone and caught up with her latest albums in preparation. We’ve also been invited to a table at the concert. The venue where we’re seeing her has tables you can sit at and I believe, bonus, alcohol.

    No. 3 is that Kim is off for three days, starting tomorrow. I happen to work Sunday but we’re off together tomorrow night, all day Saturday, and Sunday night. It’s supposed to be rainy on Saturday, so just a day in and that’s OK too. We’ll be having a Chinese takeout, as has been our custom when she is off so that will “keep us” for food for the weekend.

    I’ll leave you with one of our favorite Dar Williams songs:

    —

    ,

  • To care and not to care

    Here are two poems for you today. One is from Buddhist teacher Joseph Goldstein; the other, poet Marjorie Saiser, with both poems inspired by the planet Venus. The first I came across from a newsletter from author and podcaster Dan Harris; the second, blogger Anne Bennett, who shared Saiser’s poem on her blog on Sunday. I then shared with her Goldstein’s poem and now both with you. Maybe they will resonate with you as well.

    Venus in the Western Sky

    My companion in its brightest month
    A diamond cool radiance
    Lingers above the horizon
    Reminding me (in the words of the poet)
    To care
    And not to care
    As all the earth-bound madness
    Engulfs our lives.
    Steady, faithful
    A light in the darkness
    As the day
    Morphs into night

    -- Joseph Goldstein
    When Life Seems a To-Do List

    When the squares of the week fill
    with musts and shoulds,
    when I swim in the heaviness of it,
    the headlines, the fear and hate,

    then with luck, something like a slice  
    of moon will arrive clean as bone and 
    beside it on that dark slate
    a star will lodge near the cusp

    and with luck I will have you 
    to see it with, the two of us,
    fools stepping out 
    the backdoor in our pajamas.
     
    Is that Venus? -- I think so -- 
    Let's call  it Venus, 
    cuddling up to the moon 
    and there are stars further away

    sending out rays that will not reach us 
    in our lifetimes but we are choosing, 
    before the chaos starts up again, 
    to stand in this particular light.

    -- Marjorie Saiser

    —